This is the first of three volumes of correspondence between Sri Aurobindo and Dilip Kumar Roy, singer, musician, poet and writer. In 1928, Dilip, whom Sri Aurobindo called a friend and a son, became the latter’s disciple. A massive correspondence ensued –countless letters from Sri Aurobindo and a few more from Mother, extending till 1951, and published unabridged here for the first time.

In these illuminating pages, Sri Aurobindo explains his Yoga, guiding Dilip in his inner life, encouraging him to overcome doubt, depression, even revolt, to develop his poetic skills, commenting upon his Bengali and English poems. We see at work the ideal guru-shishya, teacher-student relationship, the infinite patience of the loving guru on the one hand, on the other the questionings, difficulties, struggles, but also experiences, of the doting disciple, whom Sri Aurobindo invites to take up the pilgrim’s staff and start out to journey there where the Reality is for ever manifest and present.